Puzzle Pieces
by merrileggs
Summary: Each member of Team Mustang have their own opinion of Colonel Roy Mustang's and First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye's relationship. But what are their opinions of their own relationship? Royai.
1. Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc

It was a relationship grounded in faith, he realized.

Faith, friendship, trust, loyalty. They all fused together into an unbreakable chain. The chain wrapped around the two firmly, refusing to let them part. 'Til Death Do You Part.

He blew out a long line of smoke and watched it swirl around in the winter breeze until the curls grew fainter and fainter before disappearing altogether.

Nah. If one went down the Road to Hell, that bond would just drag the other right along. He thought of that time Al had tried to explain the Xingese idea of Destiny, especially the one binding two fated lovers together. Their big, thick chain was no delicate string decided by Fate. They had built it together, forged it and linked themselves together. They defied Fate and Destiny.

Yeah, that was it.

They were Rebels, inside and out. The strongest, bravest, greatest of humankind.


	2. Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda

Nobody would notice from the way he acted, but Breda was a very acute man. He had gone through some of the Colonel's notes passed to the Lieutenant, but all of it was in code. Breda had, of course, cracked it in less than 4 months. There were 6 notes total, each inconspicuous.

The first note, dated December 14th, asked the adjutant to retrieve a cup of coffee. The second, 10 days later, wondered if she were attending the party his foster mother was throwing. A similar note had been sent to everyone else the same day, he remembered. The third was the one that tipped him that the notes were coded. It had been dated incorrectly; the Colonel informed his First Lieutenant that there was a meeting that afternoon, January 21st, at East HQ Board Meeting Hall. Breda remembered the meeting had actually been January 22nd. The 4th note was from February 2nd; the 5th and 6th from March 17th. All three requested that Hawkeye—he addressed her exactly like so, 'Hawkeye'—skip her usual practice to help the team with their missions abroad regarding the Elric brothers.

The notes were all in slightly different handwriting. The Colonel's 'r' might be printed in one, but cursive in another; a misplaced comma; a misspelled word. (Breda wasn't sure about that one at first, but eventually, the code unfolded, and his instinct proved correct.)

Even out of code, they were hardly worth noticing. The notes asking that she skip practice were actually requests for 30 minutes of her time during lunch to go over plans for Havoc's exercise routines. The note asking for coffee was a request to buy a plant for the office (which was actually bought right in sync with the note, by Breda's memory). Etc.

Breda was rather confused and just a tad bit frustrated. This information told him nothing! None of it clicked until Feury explained to him his own thoughts in the secret of bent heads during lunch. Then, it all fell together perfectly, in his mind.


	3. Seargant Major Kain Feury

Sometime in April, Feury had noticed Breda bent over slips of crumpled paper in the mess hall. He slid in the seat in front of him. Breda jumped, hurriedly hiding the papers. Some fluttered to the ground. Feury quickly picked them up from under the table. The original text had been so thoroughly circled, underlined, and marked through, that Feury couldn't make it out. Under it, however, Breda's handwriting read, "Havoc's new records came in from the hospital. See me during the second half of lunch to review them." Feury asked Breda what he was doing. Breda insisted he had no idea what suspicions Feury had, but he could forget about it.

Feury leaned forward eagerly. He asked Breda if this was a note from the Colonel to Miss Hawkeye. Breda stammered out a hesitant no. Feury leaned back, smiling and set the paper on the table. He informed Breda that he knew for a fact that the paper was the same stationary the Colonel used for informal purposes. Of course, he didn't actually know this; he merely knew Breda to be a fantastically bad liar when it came to friends. A very conscientious person.

Feury leaned forward and told Breda conspiratorially that he thought the Colonel and Miss Hawkeye to be in perfect unison with each other. No matter what they did, they did together. That was their way of keeping in contact, in touch, with each other, and ultimately, themselves. They were puzzle pieces that needed the other to make the puzzle whole.

Even in the most subtle of actions, in even the smallest word, they were acknowledging each other and the relationship between them. Everything filled the other up to become complete. Alone, they could never complete themselves, though they could be functional, they wouldn't truly be themselves. It's like a tree with part of its roots left behind.

Feury saw Breda's eyes get bigger and bigger. Breda declared Feury a philosopher for being so young and shook his hand. He gathered his food, the stolen notes, and left. Feury sat, stealing a perfect view of the duo he had just been talking about, doing what they did best, completing each other.


End file.
